E3 2009: Five Games that Surprised Me, Five Games that Disappointed.

Doing lists is always fun, and with E3 over now the “Game of Show” lists and the like will soon be popping up on websites everywhere, but it can be hard to judge the quality of a game just playing a small portion of it (or watching, for those of us who were at home). Most of us do that anyway, but instead of judging the quality of the games, this list is based primarily on the impression that the games made on me, be it good or bad.

Five Games that surprised me:

The Beatles: Rock Band: Since the wonderful cinematic trailer was shown at Microsoft's press conference on Monday, I've been tracking this game, looking at all of the songs being performed, watching demonstrations of the game, and look at a digital version of Paul McCartney more than I should have any right to. It's funny, really, because I thought of myself as someone who was past all of this rhythm game nonsense, and maybe I still am, because I'm not excited for most other musical offerings, and I didn't get Rock Band 2 or anything past Guitar Hero 3. Something about the Beatles as a band speaks to me, perhaps. I've never considered myself a fan of them before, and even so I'm liking what I'm hearing.

DJ Hero: Again brining to light the fact that I am a hypocrite. The most interesting thing about it is how the game is played, because it's much different from most anything else we've seen hit such a large audience, and the mash-up style, along with the ability to play some songs with the guitar, as well as the Mic, bring the game a semi-band feel to the game already. I'm not too impressed with the song offerings so far, but the Beastie Boys/Foo Fighters song was pretty interesting. The game plays so differently from every other music game out there, and I'm happy to see something new in the music game genre.

Scribblenauts: The amount of databasing needed to take on a game like this must be staggering, but I'm glad someone is doing it. Sure, the no copyrighted material/nothing vulgar rules apply, but still, that leaves a whole lot of room for creativity. You're given puzzles to solve, and you can do it anyway you want, and not just some predetermined way that the developers thought of. All of the objects you can create have properties, too. Beavers eat wood (helpful when trying to chop down a tree), and bulldozers can push whales into the ocean (helpful for...pushing whales into the ocean). People have stressed tested the game, and it seems like few of them have been able to come up with something that the game can't make under the given conditions. It definitely looks to be something interesting.

Metroid: Other M: I don't think there was a single person outside of Nintendo that wasn't surprised when this trailer hit Nintendo's press conference. This kind of collaboration between developers (especially between ones as reserved as Nintendo) just doesn't happen that often, and the fact that it's a combination between Team Ninja and Metroid sounds like a fan's wild speculation (“DUDE! What if Team Ninja made a Metroid game!?”), but it's great to see Nintendo working with someone outside their internal and second party teams. If nothing else, it's looking to be a great experiment.

Splinter Cell: Conviction: This is really a story that's echoing all throughout E3, but I haven't been a fan of previous Splinter Cell games, and this game sure is looking to change that. A lot of what the game does as far as changing the Splinter Cell game up is doing it for the better. Objectives are stylishly displayed on buildings instead of someone telling you where to go, and when you're in hiding, the last spot you were seen displays as a silhouette, telling you not to go back there. There's a lot of information displayed in the environment, as opposed to cutscenes. There's definitely a lot of new stuff being done here, and I'm ready to be a fan of this series.

Five Games That Disappointed Me:

Alan Wake: With as much hype as people around the internet were putting into how great this game looked and played, I guess I was expecting more from this game. Sure, it's likely to have a unique story that plays out like a novel (with narration), and sure, some of the things it does with light and enemies looks cool, but aside from that, it just looked...generic. There wasn't much about how it played that made it seem like it was anything special. But, when looked at as a survival horror game, and not an action game, the game might have more merit, and maybe there's more here that I'm seeing, but as of right now I don't have much of a reason to believe that this is anything more than an average third-person shooter.

The Last Guardian: My main disappointment here is how little we were shown. An extended, hi-res version of the leaked trailer was nice, but with as much time as Team Ico has had to work on this game, you'd think they'd be farther along. Maybe this sort of game just doesn't demo well in a loud environment, but a press demo would've been nice. I think it has to do with the fact that people want to keep this game under wraps as long as possible, but as of right now I can't get excited about this game.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising: Sure, it's a new Metal Gear game, but something about this feels like a backhanded compliment to Xbox fans. Almost everyone expected an MGS4 port, but the fact that all that Xbox players are going to get is a spin-off seems like Kojima is telling everyone that he doesn't really want MGS on the 360. Meanwhile, the PSP is getting Peace Walker, which they touted as the “true sequel” to the franchise. For all intents and purposes, the announcement of this game feels more like a hollow victory than anything else.

Left 4 Dead 2: No, I'm not going to boycott the game, but something here just doesn't feel right. Valve just isn't the type of developer to crank out a sequel only a year after, especially to a game that felt a bit short on content. Even after reading their argument as to why they felt they had to do it, I'm not convinced that it was the right thing to do. It seems, well, a bit impatient for them to release the game a year after, when they could've let us enjoy the first one for a bit longer while polishing the next. I don't doubt Valve's ability to make a great game, and I will buy this new one, but I just feel they could've held off a bit longer, no?

Final Fantasy XIII: Aside from the English voicework and one or two new summons, there was nothing new shown this year. It's understandable for Mircosoft to show off the game, touting how it got the game to not be exclusive, but they could've shown more, or at least something different. Also, even though there's clearly a demo you could've used, and that most of it was translated at the press conferences, you couldn't bother to put something playable on the show floor? Seems like someone over at Square didn't want anyone to play the game at all.

Keep in mind, I'm reflecting on the showings these games made at the show, not the actual quality of the games.